Squandering The Legacy: Worst Artists' Kids

are a handful of great Hank Jr tunes

― Paul Ponzi, Friday, December 31, 2021 6:39 PM (thirteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

This.

what is wrong with Caspar Brotzmann apart from sartorial choices?
Massaker were a great unit, I think they still are.

I am getting the strange feeling maybe I should start listening to Wolfgang Van Halen.

Missing option for Ravi Shankar-Norah Jones

Missing option for Ravi Shankar-Norah Jones

Also Miley,
Nancy & Frank Jr
Shooter Jennings
Arlo Guthrie
Natalie Cole

Norah doesn’t bear her father’s “name” (which is apparently a key criterion here)

Also – rude

Some musician who I can't remember expressed their Adam Cohen outrage: "Your father is Leonard Cohen...but your favourite artist is Sting?!?"

Not to be all captain save a Bocephus and no defense to his opinions at all, but it is probably not unsurprising he ended up being such a bitter hateful human in that he was pretty much exploited as a child and pushed out on stage at like age 8 as the family breadwinner after his dad died.

Miley Cyrus is more talented than her old man.

Granted, that's not a huge accomplishment. Still, not much of a legacy to squander.

― jimbeaux, Friday, December 31, 2021 4:27 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Thought it was hilarious when Old Town Road got huge and Billy Ray was more popular than his daughter for a brief moment

Sean or Hank would surely be the two most annoying to be stuck in a room with

I feel a little bad grouping Julian with Sean. John's older son had at least three passable songs and seems more sympathetic than risible. But Sean I've disliked since his first video where he was walking parallel to the sidewalk. Don't do that!

Haven't heard Sean much, but main Julian's main prob seems to be that his voice begs comparison with his old man's, in creepy, watery clone combination w the lite toons I've heard, back when he was having hits w the guy who produced Billy Joel Julian was no Billy Joel either: if he had half the gusto of Billy or John, might be less creepy, but at least he sounds kinda friendly, like Barney the Dinosaur--remember him, from the same era? Barney had more vocal prescence.
Rosanne (who can be too arty for me, but can be great) and Kaspar (judging by Massaker reissues, though they vary in quality) shouldn't be here; Jakob should.
If you're going to paste xgau on Junior, here's another:
Hank Williams Jr. and Friends [MGM, 1975]
Williams moved his country heritage toward rock and roll shortly after a confrontation with death on a mountain, and here the transformation conveys that kind of conviction. In fact, the authority of Williams' voice and persona, plus the good sense of his songwriting and selection, focuses an Allman and a Marshall Tucker and a Charlie Daniels into what I'm sure will stand as the best Southern-style rock of the year. No kidding--if you don't find Grinderswitch a suitable replacement for the Brothers, here's yours. A- (He means the roadies' band, not Garland J's Grinder Switch.)

Whiskey Bent and Hell Bound [Elektra, 1979]
At times his son-of-an-outlaw obsession is worse than shtick, but here he does justice to the formula. Two candid songs about women tell you more about his sexism than he knows himself, two others explain why he's in that mood, the covers from Gregg Allman and George Jones define his parameters, and "The Conversation"--with Waylon Guess Who, about Guess Who, Sr.--doesn't make you gag once. B+

Greatest Hits III [Warner Bros., 1989]
How embarrassing--when I let my guard down this flattering sampler catches me thinking that maybe the CMA has a point. The "Ain't Misbehavin'" isn't gratuitous, the miracle-of-science duet with his dad isn't dead, the star-studded "Mind Your Own Business" swings like a mother, the autobiography is good shtick, and the country songs are good country songs--"This Ain't Dallas" is a classic of the TV age. And though "Young Country" disses punks, I'll trade for r&b even up. B+
He mentions some others that are kinda-sorta, and that stupid-and-worse opinions can ruin others, but also I liked prob 70 percent of a box set, and about that much of several albums from the the 2000s, haven't heard any in recent years.

for some reason when I was a kid I thought the opening lyric of "Too Late for Goodbyes" was "What a difference an Arab makes"

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Voted Jakob because tbf haven't heard Sean, otherwise maybe him and Julian, but Jakob is equally deserving, at least: just so nowhere, man.

Jakob has some songs that sound good on the radio, and at least he didn’t name his band DYLAN à la John Bonham’s son.

Thoughts in order

1. Paging https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Philipp_Emanuel_Bach to thread

2. Wow tough crowd here

3. Yeah it was probably pretty easy for someone named Nancy Sinatra or Ziggy Marley or Jakob Dylan to get a record deal, vs. the same people surnamed Smith

4. But the Wallflowers were at least okay, and maybe would have had a few alt-rock / college radio hits even without the famous last name

5. Maybe not very much awareness of the 1990s folk scene hereabouts? Teddy Thompson is good. Eliza Carthy is very good. Kate Rusby is good. Watersons and Carthys and Thompsons are very much around and are doing stuff that I think is relevant.

6. Can we maybe discuss some of the Wainwrights because those folks also seem salient to the discussion at hand.

7. Thread is low on Zappa-related content

7(b). no dweezil, no justice

Don't know if they recorded---maybe live---but Dweezil's touring Zappa Plays Zappa orchestral celebration, with some Frank vets, even a couple Mothers, maybe? was anointed by Rolling Stone The World's Greatest Cover Band, or maybe it was just Best, but still. However, the last I read, he and Moon discovered, right after their mother's death, that Gail had left control of the Vault and all Frank matters in the hands of brother Ahmet and kid sister Diva---and Dweezil claimed that Ahmet wouldn't let him use his own name for the band, Ahmet said, all Dweezil had to do was---I don't remember, could look it up but what a drag; I've known families who came to that.

The big news to me about the Thompson Family album was---Linda is back! She's done more good stuff since, but had been very slowly recovering from vocal problems. Teddy and all the other younger relations did okay, but way overshadowed by Richard and Linda.
The Lucy Wainwright Roche solo tracks I've heard were amazing, incl. lyrics and settings, but live solo sets w just her guitar seemed v. ingenue, shy. Much more impressive w her mother, Suzzy, and I linked some of their live performances on the Roches thread.
Haven't heard her on The Wainwright Sisters album, but Martha's always been powerful since I first heard her vs. lovely haze of The McGarrigles Hour w song about and directed at her father, I think. Later some tendency to oversing, like Rufus, but they both got it together eventually, and for inst I really liked her 2012 album:
Martha Wainwright---Come Home To Mama So, like Cat Power and Fiona Apple, very confidential-to-allusive-to-cryptic-to-let-it-blurt (and back), singer-songer Martha Wainwright now uses tuneful beat science to parse hot mess. Even further into the studio as self-expressive/referential protection and risk than the Power, less (eventually) tending to monotony than the tirelessly delving Apple, Come Home To Mama has more of a band feel than either, and knows from Prince, Stevie, Ziggy, Dolly, her parents and brother, while always being her own story. Good on drugstore headphones too.

Also--pasted from one of her threads to current Hype and Slander re EOY noms:
nother nom, Martha Wainwright, Love Will Be Reborn--thought I'd said more than this! She's learned from the great French balladeers, as well as her own life, incl. in American and Canadian music:

New album is wild, thematic and gooooing with the floooow, theme as raft, well-lashed, only comparable contemporary sonic experience coming to mynd is Maria McKee's Pre-Raphaelite shout out to Beatrice, La Vita Nuova.

good interview:https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/aug/07/this-much-i-know-martha-wainwright-my-divorce-has-given-me-wisdom
and concert review, w more quotes:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/oct/04/first-live-concert-masks-martha-wainwright-pandemic

― dow, Monday, October 4, 2021

― dow, Friday, January 7, 2

Lucy Wainwright Roche solo *studio album* tracks, I meant to compare to her live etc.

For instance, in her rebroadcast solo set on Mountain Stage, which still has that, and her remarkable quarantine show w Suzzy, available online.

thanks, dow, for the solid Zappa- and Wainwright- and Thompson-adjacent content - looks like I misunderstood the intent of the thread however because I belatedly see we're supposed to be discussing BAD things, not good things

Tomorrow People is neither great nor a legacy-diminishing travesty. I think I saw Damian Marley (in maybe 2006? 2007?) opening for Bob Dylan and felt decidedly meh, but again - does it squander the legacy? Not sure.

I don't think I ever want to hear "sitting on a pebble by the river playing guitar" ever again, so maybe that. Cibo Matto is pretty cool tho

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-57864034

I have to assume this record is rubbish, though I've not heard it and only became aware of it when it was included on NME's best-of-2021 list.

I Blame Coco

Fiction Plane

Some of these options are offensive, but every one of them is competent or better-than-competent except for Kelly Osbourne, who is the walking definition of showbiz nepotism.

Inhaler's terrible xp

Sting's kids have a couple good songs each, but are otherwise Inhaler-level terrible. But still not Kelly Osbourne-level terrible.

Lol at

"From starting off in small clubs in the UK to where we are today, never did we think during the making of this album that this would be possible for us four chancers,"

Well do I remember how Nancy Sinatra, the Lennon boys, and Jakob Dylan started off in small clubs, paying their dues, etc.

Me, I saw Drew Barrymore in a small community theater production of "Annie" back in the day; she was just starting out, learning her chops etc.

Martin Amis, Lily Collins, the Smith kids, Dan Levy, let's take a moment to recognize their struggle

Anyone dismissing Hank Jr. wholesale has only heard the "All My Rowdy Friends" version of Hank Jr. A good decade of that MGM-era stuff from the 60s to mid-70s is quite nice.

(Not to discount the beard & shades Hank Jr at all, who I also like in moderation.)

Yeah, I defended Junior upthread, w/o overdoing it (he's a mixed blessing for sure). Nancy Sinatra's been mentioned here a couple times in passing, and yeah having your Daddy own Reprise prob didn't hoit, nor did the duets w him, nor w Hazlewood, but she also made some good records singing solo---I didn't know about "You Only Live Twice" 'til it was used to beautiful effect in Mad Men!

I can't think of much to say about most of the people on here that I think (may be wrong) are bad---that's been a problem in pop music for a long time. Once, some artists, and they were truly that, could be gloriously, awesomely shitty! The Four Seasons were the Kings of Shit, thought. Yall name a few.

Started to say, Beach Boys, even Beatles of Shit, but the Seasons depended on non-band writers.

dow do u know Nancy's 'Sugartown"? check it out if not

she would be in the running for "best artists' kids" thread IMO

She had a bunch of early singles that did not sell, and was in danger of getting booted off Reprise, before Lee came up with "Boots"

"Boots" is on its way to having more of a cultural (ahem) footprint than any of Frank's countless smash hits.

but the Seasons depended on non-band writers.

Bob Gaudio was actually a Four Season.

I know people think the Beatles invented the idea of pop groups writing their own material but pretty much all of the Four Seasons' early hits were written or co-written by Bob Gaudio, apart from the odd obvious cover version, like "Stay".

And the Beach Boys too

Been following this thread...Nancy seems pretty solid to me, for "Boots," "Some Velvet Morning," "Jackson," and, yes, especially "Sugar Town." Do they have to be pop musicians? Frank Jr. is the real culprit. He made a few albums, but his biggest claim to fame is a possibly fake kidnapping. (Also Dean Martin's son, of Dino, Desi, and Billy fame. They really didn't do a lot.)

Yes, Nancy was a good popstar, had a good cool/detached singing voice (a bit like a proto Debbie Harry) and a good image. And the songs when she'd hooked up with Lee Hazelwood.

Did we even mention Will Smith’s kids?

I mentioned them. FTR I think "Transparent Soul" is good not bad

Safe to say Willow is at least not squandering the allegedly brilliant lasting cultural legacy of (checks notes) the guy who did the "Men in Black" theme and (checks notes) the theme song of "The Fresh Prince of Bel Air."

I mean, one _could_ make the case that it's her father's oeuvre that is the drag on the legacy, and she's bringing something he didn't.

1. Really liked that Femi Kuti song posted up there!

2. Really like that "Family Tradition" includes calling a doctor "sawbones.

3. Julian's main prob seems to be that his voice begs comparison with his old man's, in creepy, watery clone combination w the lite toons I've heard

Adam Cohen's got this too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vvq1BiHLaW0

He also recorded "Summertime" and is an often terrific actor, c'mon now

xpost

Don't really want to diss Will, just saying that Willow isn't squandering a legacy - seems like a pretty confident artist charting her own path

X Æ A-Xii

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AH8lwX6uYAM